Reconfigurable VLSI architectures for evolvable hardware: from experimental field programmable transistor arrays to evolution-oriented chips

On the "Evolvable Hardware" Approach to Electronic Design Invention

“…It appears that success with this approach depends on the extent to which human design principles in building block specification and interconnection are respected. For example, researchers have used FPTAs [15,34,26] with the goal of inventive circuits starting from the transistor while not enforcing assumptions of transistor saturation, zero gate current, etc. The custom-made devices of these projects also allow varying degrees of transistor interconnect.…”

Evolution of Embodied Intelligence

“…For example, Adrian Stoica and his colleagues at NASA/JPL are designing evolvable circuits for robotics and space application [34], while Tetsuya Higuchi, another pioneer of this field, at the Electro- Fig. 8.…”

Self-Reconfigurable Analog Arrays: Off-The Shelf Adaptive Electronics for Space Applications

“…Thus, compared to commercial solutions this has the advantages in terms of (1) larger variability of the cells, (2) total number of cells, and (3) extended temperature operational range (from -180C to 125C). While in our prior work, BBs were of very fine granularity (as in field programmable transistor arrays, FPTA, and most refined to transistor level in FPTA-0 [2]) the SRAA uses buildings blocks of common encapsulated granularity, with advantages in frequency response because of fewer parasitic losses. Compared to our FPTA architecture [3], [4] that would only map circuits operating in the ~ 100 kHz range, the SRAA is expected to operate beyond ~5MHz.…”